1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system for filtering information.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of television stations provided on a cable system increase and satellite antennas become more popular, the multitude of television programming available to the viewer is increasing at a significant rate. Viewers must consult lengthy program guides in order to select programs for viewing. For example, if the viewer is interested in watching a particular set of programs, the viewer may need to read a multitude of program listings in order to learn when and on what channels those particular programs are being broadcast. In some cases, the viewer does not have a particular program in mind but is still interested in watching television. That viewer would need to sort through a large magnitude of information, including information relevant to shows that the viewer would never be interested in watching. A more efficient method for the viewer to find a suitable program or scheduling information would be able to filter all the scheduling information so that the viewer could restrict the viewer's searching to a manageable subset of information.
Electronic program guides are available that can be used to display television scheduling information. Some of these electronic program guides include filters. However, existing filters are only "all or nothing" filters where the user can select one criteria and the data will be filtered to find shows meeting that one criteria. There is no concept of any continuum of criteria. Furthermore, prior filters do not allow changing the filter criteria without performing a cumbersome profile set up routine.
Therefore, a system is needed that allows the user of a program guide to quickly filter a large set of information into a subset of information that is of potential interest to the user.